China Gives Conditional Approval to Coronavirus Vaccine for General Use

• The vaccine is the first one approved for general use in China
• Sinopharm is one of at least five Chinese developers that are in a global race to create vaccines for the disease that has killed more than 1.8 million people

China has given conditional approval to a coronavirus vaccine developed by state-owned Sinopharm.

The vaccine is the first one approved for general use in China.

The deputy commissioner of China’s Medical Production Administration said Thursday that the decision had been made the previous night. 

The vaccine is an inactivated, two-dose vaccine from the Beijing Institute of Biological Products, a subsidiary of state-owned conglomerate Sinopharm. The company announced Wednesday that trials had shown it to be 79.3% effective.

Sinopharm is one of at least five Chinese developers that are in a global race to create vaccines for the disease that has killed more than 1.8 million people.

China could grant conditional approval for vaccines that are yet to complete clinical trials if the vaccine is deemed urgently needed to cope with major public health emergencies and its benefits outweigh the risks, Chen Shifei, an official with National Medical Products Administration, told the briefing.

No detailed efficacy data of the vaccine has been publicly released, but a Beijing unit of CNBG said on Wednesday that its vaccine is 79.34% effective in preventing people from the disease based on interim data.

The approval comes after the United Arab Emirates became the first country earlier this month to roll out the Sinopharm vaccine to the public.

While China has been slower than several other countries in approving COVID-19 vaccines, it has been inoculating its citizens for months with three different shots still undergoing late-stage trials.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Scrabbl staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)